Dear Poets,
In a time of such strife in the world (and indeed, I am having a kind of annus horribilis myself), I hope you are faring well. I just lost my treasured “Novid” status yesterday as my household is now hacking away with Covid. I will miss that little frisson of surprise when I told people we had escaped this plague.
On a cheerier note, welcome new subscribers! And my thanks to those subscribers who were kind enough to promote this newsletter. I started The Proem over a year ago, largely to let former students know about writing workshops I was offering, but my goal has always been to provide encouragement, resources, and opportunities that connect to creative writing. While the listings are often L.A.-centric, I also post broadly about poetry-related trends, readings, and articles. I am glad to shout out news from former students and friends and list readings and events — just let me know!
While I am still on hiatus from teaching, I am working individually with writers. Please reach out if you are seeking editing, coaching, or to share in the mix of longing and angst that is connected with bringing creative work into the world. I once heard Sharon Olds say that what she liked most about teaching was the company — indeed, I understand. ✍️
Let me congratulate former student Sara Ellen Fowler whose manuscript, Two Signatures, was selected by Joan Naviyuk Kane for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry in 2023 and will be published by the University of Utah Press in 2024. I have always loved the quote from Ali’s poem “Stationery” posted on their page: “The world is full of paper. Write to me.”
I kvell for Donna Spruijt-Metz who is featured in Poets & Writers “5 over 50” profile. As an aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the excerpt from poet Safiya Sinclair’s forthcoming memoir that was recently in the New Yorker.
Let me also give a shout out to Napa workshop-mate and friend, Laura Hogan, whose beautiful new book Butterfly Nebula has launched. For those in L.A., her next reading is November 9, 2023, 7:00 p.m. with poet Kate Bolton Bonnici at The Village Well, 9900 Culver Blvd, Culver City.
I have been struck, as ever, by the abundance of October-themed poems. This Keats poem haunts me and feels especially autumnal. Quotes abound: "I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring." —W.S. Merwin. Check out the entry for October in this Linda Pastan sequence, “The Year” (which could also serve as a prompt to yourself). Below, one by James Crews.
I appreciate the languid pose and coffee reference by Virginia Woolf.
Traditionally, I pull out Louise Glück’s chapbook, October, which I am thankful I had the prescience to buy one year at AWP (as I see it now retailing for quite a lot). Sadly, as you may know by now, news broke that Glück passed yesterday. There is so much to say about her. Here is her poem (part I) entitled, “October.” And here, another meditation on Glück’s chapbook by Sally Keith; “On the Intimacy of the Unspeakable” followed by a prompt. I can’t get by Halloween without reading her famed “All Hallows.” She won dozens of prestigious awards and I recollect showing students a YouTube snippet of her being accosted by reporters outside her front door when she won the Nobel in 2020 and displaying her usual acerbic, irritated self.
I think of her work as distinctly autumnal — often concerned with dying, the specter of death, grief, and always measured by an elegant restraint or powerful reserve that let the reader know a wave of feeling underneath was being tamped back. I turned to her to study economy of language and how using spare images could burn an impression in. In grad school one of my first assignments was to study the structure of her first book — aptly named Firstborn — part of this collected volume. The arc of her career — and her influence — will be studied for years.
During a difficult time in my life the opening lines from the poem “The Wild Iris” (within her book of the same name which won the Nobel), were an incantation I repeated over and over again: “At the end of my suffering, there was a door.” A prompt for this month: what follows if you copy out that line? What is on the other side of the door? See what enters if you open it. ✍️ Feel free to email or post below. 🍂
Sharing with you:
A few years ago I taught a fall class entitled, “Season of the Witch” 🧙 and loved the themes we explored. I have been struck by the wave of offerings that connect with “tarot poetics” or “oracular poetics” or whatever label you want to give it. I just signed up for this class meeting tomorrow (and you can still too!) “Writing Letters to Ghosts” with Jennifer S. Cheng (10:00 am PST and $10).
The class is part of a series, “Divinatory Poetics Hour,” on the Four Queens website. I learned about the site through this virtual AWP program “Divine Writing—Connections between Practice, Craft, and Divination.” I can see this juncture is a rich one (and heftily monetized). I’d love explore tarot as a tool for writing and welcome ideas.
I just signed this petition to keep the venerable The Gettysburg Review open and you can too.
I saw that poet Ilya Kaminsky posted asking for donations for an organization he’s part of: Young People’s Poems Against Missiles. There is this moving description: “We believe poems can allow young people to articulate themselves when they are alone, when they are in bomb-shelters, when nothing else is there.”
Let me also post to Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry and their templates for Jewish Poetry Salons of Community & Care. This set of questions is insightful: “Can writing, studying, or sharing poetry be a form of tikkun olam? [to repair the world]”
More locally, California poet laureate Lee Herrick is seeking submissions of poems about California. I don’t see a deadline.
Even more locally, The Altadena Poetry Review (which I edited years ago, now edited by current co-laureate Peter Harris) is seeking submissions through the month of October.
If you’ve ever wondered why the Harriet Blog on the Poetry website is so named, you can attend this Zoom program on October 19th to find out more about the life of Harriet Monroe, the generous benefactor of the Poetry Foundation whose largesse is still funding their endeavors many generations down.
I just learned about this new YouTube series: “Split the Lark” co-hosted by poets Melissa Studdard and Suzanne Frischkorn.
This deadline is, er, tomorrow, but the Poetry Foundation is seeking writers “near the beginning of their career” for their 2024 Teaching Artists in the Forms & Features Workshop Series.
I hadn’t realized the Woodberry Poetry Room had its own blog: Stylus. Always worth looking at their public programs. Brenda Hillman and Robin Costa Lewis on October 30th, part of the Vocarium reading series, looks very appealing.
Local to L.A. I was glad to learn about the organization Street Poets and their Poetry in Motion van. And a shoutout to my beloved WriteGirl, who is accepting volunteer applications until October 25th.
I would have loved to be in D.C. in late September for the “Poetry is a Country” confererence/event at the National Gallery. This page shares some of the ekphrastic poems inspired by the collection and seems like a good source for prompts. So regretful to miss the exhibit “Poetry and Book Arts.”
This too seems a treasure trove—Aromatica Poetica, a site combining a love of ‘smell and taste’ with literature. Here is a contribution by poet Jehanne Dubrow who has often written about perfume and the senses. They are taking submissions.
Finally, if you’re in my hometown of Miami this month, you can trade a poem for bread! “Zak the Baker and local literary non-profit O, Miami want your food-inspired haikus.” Please, an L.A. bakery adopt this idea.
And, there are a lot of poet-lawyers out there… just sayin’.
If you don’t know the headline reference above, it’s “To Autumn” by Keats — as we roll into another heat wave here.
As ever, I hope to hear from you. Please be in touch! ✍️